Cheer Pheasant

Cheer Pheasant Latest News

Recently, it is observed that hunting and habitat degradation remain the biggest threats of ground-dwelling Cheer Pheasant.

About Cheer Pheasant

• It is also known as Wallich’s pheasant or chir pheasant, belongs to the pheasant family, Phasianidae.
• Habitat: It is found in steep, rocky hillsides studded with scrub, stunted trees and grassy slopes between 1,200 and 3,350 metres.
• Distribution: Western Himalaya from northern Pakistan through Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, to central Nepal.

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Characteristics of Cheer Pheasant

• The cheer pheasant’s nest is a simple ground scrape, tucked beneath undergrowth or sheltered by rocks.
• It exhibits high natal philopatry­—individuals often return to, or remain near, the area where they were born to breed.
• It depends on early successional grasslands created by traditional grass cutting and burning—practices.
• Diet: It depends on items such as roots, tubers, bulbs, buried seeds and possibly insect larvae and earthworms.

Conservation Status of Cheer Pheasant

• IUCN: Vulnerable
• CITES: Appendix I
• Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I

Source: DTE